Baptism Gathering at Long Bay to celebrate the baptisms of Susie, Vicky, Andrea, Marcus and Caleb.
We're extremely excited to announce our new training initiative: Studio.
It's not a lecture – each evening is a third teaching, a third practicing and a third Q&R discussion. It's led by our new staff member, Strahan Coleman and we'll have some terrific Central Vineyard contributors and guests joining in.
Studio will begin May 2, running fortnightly on Tuesday evenings for the term. See the full details at centralvineyard.org/studio
FIRSTLY, THANK YOU.
We are a church that believes in being generous with all that we have, because being generous is the outworking of the realisation that what we have is God's first. Thank you for being generous people. Your generosity has been an incredible blessing to us.
In 2016 financial giving played a huge part in getting Central Vineyard up and going. We have successfully been able to cover all the costs of growing our church plant initiative from a small startup through to the growing church it is today; hiring our first staff members, paying rent, purchasing equipment and blessing the people of our church and city through generosity and several missional initiatives during the year.
We are reliant on the generosity of our people to cover our budget, which enables us to do all that we do together and to ourselves be generous as a church. (We also receive a small contract from Vineyard Churches Aotearoa NZ who pay Central Vineyard for Dan to spend part of his time as the national director's ministry assistant which means we have been able to pass on some of our hours to other staff members.)
Our total income for 2016 was: $150,507.10
(including a surplus from 2015 of $17,030.62)
Our total outgoings for 2016 was: $138,240.16
Due to careful stewardship of our finances we have met our needs and finished the year with a small surplus.
If you have any questions about our spending you can contact any of our board members to discuss anything, or Dan.
To close, again, thank you to those who have financially given this year. Without generosity we couldn't play our part in joining God in what He is doing in our city as well as we are.
"So we will see in our history the faithful love of God."
For two thousand years the Church has faithfully tried to navigate the tension between being the people of God's presence, and being placed in their moment of history and their place in the world.
How we navigate this tension has led to all kinds of paradigms and ideas and practices and campaigns and events and structures... It all gets quite cluttered and overwhelming to be honest.
So with this series, we're taking things right back to the radical heart of the Gospel.
God's kingdom is at hand: He is lovingly putting all things back-to-right, blessing it and making it good again, and we're invited to come and join Him in this work of love until all things are made new.
What could it look like to be a church that right now — in this moment of history, in this city — lived in such a way that "...they will see in our history the faithful love of God"?
Welcome to the series, Faithful Presence.
MEMORISATION/PRAYER CARDS
Ideal as a phone wallpaper
Waitangi Day reminds us we are not a one-culture-only-nation. We are multicultural; diverse, yet unified here by this context of place. This weekend we are going to take this moment to remind ourselves that God’s kingdom is a place of cultural-diversity. The church is meant to taste like this:
What does it mean to celebrate the stories of our diversity? How might we learn off each other? Come and hear the stories this Sunday as we host a panel of Central Vineyard people from diverse cultural backgrounds.
It's going to be ka pai.
SUNDAY'S 9.00am
We're praying before our Sunday gathering every week for people to meet God both within our family and outside of it. God is already doing amazing things in our midst but He also asks us to keep knocking on the door, to keep expecting more.
So, let's get together to pray for the anxious to be free, the sick to be healed, the lost to be found and for God to keep carrying us forward into the great unknown.
God can and will change the world through our prayers.
We're kicking off 2017 with a summer series that investigates our intention and looks at an important question we all need to ask: "What do you want?"
This confronting question from Jesus reveals the power of our intentions and what they lead us to do. It will be a great journey for both you as an individual, but also for us as a family, as we look at what the intentions are for our year ahead.
You've worked hard this year and to work hard is good. You've created new things and contributed to what is going on in the world and the Kingdom of God. You've poured your time, energy and resource into the things you love most.
Now, as we head towards Christmas and a summer break, what does it mean to take a break and rest?
Join us in our new series "And I will give you rest" as we explore what the rest God offers looks like, and why it's important.
For the next two Sunday gatherings at Central Vineyard we have guests coming to speak and share. Don't miss out on hearing from these two Vineyard NZ leaders and great friends of Central Vineyard.
Our journey so far
Our first birthday
A big thanks to all who helped pull this special celebration together and to Cameron Thorp for taking these photos.